I wanted to work up this concept for an oasis before I forgot about it so here it is. There's no scalebar 'cuz it's not finished yet but the scale is 1 pixel = 6 inches. The thing in the middle of the pond is some sort of raised dais with a sunken center (either filled with water or with a trapdoor, I haven't decided). There is a raft for the shaman to go from the rock dock to the dais for his ceremonies. A small market; a khan's tent; some watch guard tents; regular tents; camel, horse and goat stables; and some fields (with rock fences) make up the rest for right now. This was just an idea that I had burning in my brain so I had to get it out, lemme know what ya think. It's 2000 X 2000.

Now I gotta go back and finish all the other stuff I've started.

jfrazierjr

06-26-2008, 11:21 PM

Wow Ascension! This is great. My only regret is that it Can't effectively use it in a VTT due to the scale. I would rep you again, but I need to spread some love around first.

Joe

NeonKnight

06-27-2008, 10:33 AM

Very sweet looking map. Good work!

Midgardsormr

06-27-2008, 06:35 PM

I may be imagining things, but it looks as though the large palms' shadows fall to the southeast of the trees, but all the other shadows fall to the northwest.

And are there two light sources? It looks like the buildings are each throwing two shadows.

It's a gorgeous map; I love your approach to the water.

jfrazierjr

06-27-2008, 07:02 PM

I may be imagining things, but it looks as though the large palms' shadows fall to the southeast of the trees, but all the other shadows fall to the northwest.

Opps.. I take it back, this map is horrible! ;)

I had not event noticed, I was to busy trying to put my tongue back into my mouth and wipe up the drool.

Joe

Ascension

06-27-2008, 11:12 PM

Your are right on both accounts Mid, I'll have to redo those big palm shadows, never even noticed it, don't know how they got like that. The tents have a drop shadow as well as a full black layer that was motion blurred to create the angular shadow. I don't like the way PS does it's shadows so I'm trying to figure out a work around short of doing full elevations for each building (sideview of the building) or doing them all in Sketch-Up. Combining the 2 different types of shadows has always sort of filled in the missing gap but I went lighter with the shadowing this time. Drop shadows alone make the objects look like they're floating (which I heard about in my first city map) and the motion blur blurs forwards AND backwards so I'm really stuck. Shadows are my kryptonite. As I type this I think I just figured it out, or at least a new method to test drive. I'll re-up the new map soon with the fixes and the new shadows.

jfrazierjr

06-27-2008, 11:16 PM

Your are right on both accounts Mid, I'll have to redo those big palm shadows, never even noticed it, don't know how they got like that. The tents have a drop shadow as well as a full black layer that was motion blurred to create the angular shadow. I don't like the way PS does it's shadows so I'm trying to figure out a work around short of doing full elevations for each building (sideview of the building) or doing them all in Sketch-Up. Combining the 2 different types of shadows has always sort of filled in the missing gap but I went lighter with the shadowing this time. Drop shadows alone make the objects look like they're floating (which I heard about in my first city map) and the motion blur blurs forwards AND backwards so I'm really stuck. Shadows are my kryptonite. As I type this I think I just figured it out, or at least a new method to test drive. I'll re-up the new map soon with the fixes and the new shadows.

hmmm just thinking off the top of my head, and I am sure someone has probably tried this (and said it's a bad idea), but what if you put a slight outer glow and then a standard drop shadow? I wonder if that would still make it seem to float or if the very slight shadow on the other sides would "ground" it or not....

Joe

Ascension

06-28-2008, 01:03 AM

Not to worry, I think I ironed out my shadows problems...duplicated the motion blur layer 2 extra times. I also added 2 lil footbridges over the irrigation canals and put some ripples on my lake. This one is getting pretty close to done...gotta add some miscellaneous junk for the villagers to play with (clotheslines, campfires, carts, animals for the pens, etc.) and then slap some labeling and graphics on it.

Midgardsormr

06-28-2008, 06:12 PM

May I ask how you accomplished the ripples?

Ascension

06-28-2008, 08:08 PM

This is in PS: I copied the original clouds layer then moved it up above the pond. Then I did a sketch/bas-relief filter (gives me a stone-like texture with ridges). Selected the whites and deleted the grays and blacks. Color overlay layer style of white with a mode of dissolve at 10% (this gives me lil white dots where the remaining white base color is). Set the fill on the layer to zero so that only the white dots remain and the white bas-reliefed clouds are invisible. Merged the layer to a blank layer to flatten out the layer style. Copied this layer and set the opacity to 10% (so the white wasn't so harsh). On the original layer I ran a 10 pixel motion blur filter which lengthened the white dot out into a semi-transparent slash. Set the mode to color dodge at 25% (this turns the semi-white slash into an aqua-colored slash) then put a small low opacity outer bevel on it and viola. It sounds complicated but it isn't. I did the same thing for my Farpoint map in about 45 seconds. This method is probably way over-complicated but it was my first attempt so future methods might be simpler.

Doing this in GIMP would just be to render up some clouds, select only the white then run some noise, and blur...don't know if GIMP has a motion blur but in PS you can adjust the angle of it 360 degrees, which is nice for doing different parts of a coast.

I wrote a tutorial while doing the oasis (I always write one so that I can always look back at how I did something in case I forget) so I could put that up if ya want...although I just put that part all right here :)

I might also try something similar to add vegetation to my fields.

Midgardsormr

06-28-2008, 08:15 PM

Many thanks! I'd rep you, but I apparently need to spread it around a bit first. Every time you post, I see how much further I have to go in learning Photoshop. I obviously need to start experimenting with more filters--the use you get out of motion blur far exceeds what I would have thought possible before you came around.

Ascension

06-28-2008, 08:39 PM

Actually, I only used motion blur maybe twice in my life before I started working on city sized maps. I've learned more about PS in the past 2 or 3 weeks that I've been here than I did in 5 years of online tutorials for other miscellaneous stuff like removing red eye and making realistic gold. Gimme a challenge and I'll figure out a dozen different ways to overcome it...I'm one of those kinda guys. Low down on my list of challenges right now is GIMP, I'll just follow the other's lead there :)

jfrazierjr

06-28-2008, 09:24 PM

Many thanks! I'd rep you, but I apparently need to spread it around a bit first. Every time you post, I see how much further I have to go in learning Photoshop. I obviously need to start experimenting with more filters--the use you get out of motion blur far exceeds what I would have thought possible before you came around.

Double ditto...

Actually, I only used motion blur maybe twice in my life before I started working on city sized maps. I've learned more about PS in the past 2 or 3 weeks that I've been here than I did in 5 years of online tutorials for other miscellaneous stuff like removing red eye and making realistic gold. Gimme a challenge and I'll figure out a dozen different ways to overcome it...I'm one of those kinda guys. Low down on my list of challenges right now is GIMP, I'll just follow the other's lead there :)

I think it would be GREAT if you took some of these just learned techniques and translate them to GIMP also. Each program has somethings it does that are exactly the same, some things only it can do, and some things can be done in one but with a different method in the other and being able to translate that would be sweet!

Joe

Ascension

07-01-2008, 08:23 PM

This one, I think, is done. I added some basic grafix as I'm not not all that talented at creating new and interesting borders and text fx. I make a tutorial for everything new I try out so that I can go back and look at my own notes and change things when I like. I'll put that up in the tuts section if anyone wants to have a go at it. Tried to incorporate the stuff into GIMP but to no avail, I need much more experience with it. Do I post this here or in Finished maps?